Conservatives Priorities for Omnibus Package

During the last week of October, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. The bill abandoned conservative fiscal policy, choosing instead to suspend our nation’s debt limit until March 2017 (an estimated $1.5 trillion hike) and increase total federal spending by at least $111 billion over the next three years, blowing through the caps established by the Budget Control Act.

With this new spending framework established by the Bipartisan Budget Act, Congress will attempt to pass appropriations legislation to allocate these spending increases by December 11th. Unfortunately, congressional leadership is attempting to bundle 12 pieces of appropriations legislation together into one omnibus spending bill. Conservatives stand opposed to such a package. In addition to using the leverage of the appropriations process to restrain the executive and attain key conservative policy objectives (including provisions defunding Planned Parenthood and executive amnesty), the bill should only appropriate spending within the original budget cap levels.

Spend Within Budget Caps: The framework established by the Bipartisan Budget Act allows for an additional $111 billion is spending. But this framework passed with unified Democratic support, and a minority of Republicans. There is a reason that Congress is under a new leadership team, and appropriations legislation does not need to allocate spending at this heightened level. There is still an opportunity for Congress to exercise restraint and fiscal responsibilities, and only allocating spending at the levels authorized by the original budget caps. Such a policy would communicate to the American people that Congress intends to pursue responsible spending practices.

Defund Planned Parenthood: In July 2015, the Center for Medical Progress began releasing a series of undercover videos documenting Planned Parenthood executives haggling over fetal body parts, as well as describing the use of the illegal partial-birth abortion procedure to secure intact organs. These atrocities are currently funded by the government of the United States, which supplied Planned Parenthood with 41% of its total revenue last year ($528 million). This has led Planned Parenthood to become the largest abortion provider in the country, performing over 327,000 abortions last year (1 of every 3 abortions performed in the United States). This all occurred while federal law prevents the use of federal dollars in performing abortions – a provision circumvented by Planned Parenthood’s creative accounting and the fungibility of federal dollars.

A legislative rider defunding Planned Parenthood by name is necessary to effectively shut off federal funds to the organization, as it would both remove Title X funding and prohibit Medicaid funds from being awarded under the “choose your own provider” provision. 151 Republicans voted against a two month continuing resolution that funded Planned Parenthood. Those members need to be encouraged to maintain their positions against a spending bill that funds Planned Parenthood in December.

Defund Executive Amnesty: The clearest example of the president’s overstep of his executive powers through the illegal use of executive orders can be found in his executive amnesty program. It is the responsibility of members of Congress to craft laws governing United States immigration policy, and the role of the executive to implement those laws. By unilaterally implementing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, and by widely expanding the program in 2014 (DAPA), the president ignored the constitutional separation of powers and took the legislative powers of Congress upon himself.

Twenty-six states filed suit, claiming an abuse of executive power, and the Fifth Circuit upheld an injunction against the program earlier this year. But a leaked memo indicates that the administration is planning on circumventing the court’s injunction and issuing several hundred thousand additional worker visas. In light of this administration’s repeated abuses of executive power, the bill should contain a provision defunding the executive amnesty program.

Refugee Resettlement: The United States currently maintains the most generous refugee program in the world. But the President has proposed expanding this program by increasing the number of refugees to 45,000 by the end of 2016. This influx of refugees presents a series of national security concerns, which the current administration has been negligent in addressing. Due to significant linguistic and cultural differences, lack of documentation, and the opacity of refugees concerning motivations, it is incredibly difficult to effectively screen refugees. This problem is compounded by widespread fraud and a significant risk of refugees being targeted for recruitment by terror groups while present in their country of resettlement. The Obama administration has consistently demonstrated its unwillingness to establish systems for effectively screening refugees, with grave implications on national security.

Congress should push for a thorough and transparent vetting process, and should deny funding to the president’s program until such a process is established. The December 11th appropriations deadline provides an opportunity for Congress to use a legislative rider defunding the president’s expansion, after which Congress may work with security experts to pass legislation establishing a thorough screening process, and a mechanism for lawmakers to affirm the administration is implementing the new process correctly.

Conclusion: The power of the purse is a constitutionally-established power of Congress, and appropriations legislation provides the clearest opportunity for its use. These are not the only conservative policies that can be pursued during the appropriations process, but they are critical ones. Current members of Congress were elected with a clear mandate to pursue conservative policies and spending reforms, and should not abandon the fight on key points of leverage.

Please Share Your Thoughts

31 thoughts on “Conservatives Priorities for Omnibus Package”

I do NOT want to see another omnibus forced down the throats of All the American people… I Would however for ONCE like to see the Rep./Inds. Fight for the people who put you in office! You know what your constituents Want! Fight for us, Fight for America! Use your POWER OF THE PURSE and Do So FEARLESSLY! Thank You … I hope

Break the omnibus up into 12 separate bills. Pass the essential things like military, debt service, & social security first, and leave the controversial stuff until last. Don’t give Obama a chance to veto everything at once and blame the Republicans for shutting down the government. Some of the things you leave for last could be forgotten altogether, like the White House travel & entertainment budget.

you (congress) need to stop spending like some drunken sailor, we have a president(socialist/muslin ) who has broke every oath supposedly took on the bible (but we now know it was the Koran ) no body in Washington dares to say one word much less try to stop him, instead you go along with him. just spend us into oblivion , planned parenthood is the largest provider of abortion ( murdering babies/ tax payers ), then you did not try to stop the Iran deal and give them $150 billion to help them fight us. The only country we should be helping is Israel but instead he is trying to bring more muslin ( 10-1 ) over Christians . He tells us we are not a Christian nation BULL. HOW ABOUT YOU STAND UP FOR THE PEOPLE THAT PUT YOU IN OFFICE.

I’m up to here with the stereotypical, “spending money like a drunken sailor” analogy.
Two things:
The sailor is spending HIS OWN MONEY!
When he is out of money HE STOPS SPENDING!

You might also be interested in the fact that the Navy has community outreach in almost every port visited. Personal example:
A group of dozens of sailors from the USS Dewey choosing to play “futbal” with the kids and spending two days refurbishing an orphanage in Rio de Janeiro (instead of that stereotypical thing).

I wonder how many of you will actually stand up and vote to 1) Secure our borders whether it is illegal or legal immigration? Eliminate common core? Build a strong military? I wonder are you there because of Fame….Money …..Power? Or are you there because you love the USA and will protect it at all costs. Many paid the price with their blood or loss of limbs. Do you have what it takes to be 1/10 the person they were/are? You are the majority. There are no more excuses.

Wish you people would do what we voted you in for. Instead we the American people of this country have got to deal with your srew ups. I guess that’s what we get for voting in lawyers who talk out of both sides of their mouth. Guess I should have been one but I can’t lie like that I got a Conscience

Break them up and vote on spending according to what each holds in value to the USA. We need to start running our country try like a business, not a not for profit. We need to pay down the debt, not expand on it. Dear God help us all.

Put the power of government back into the hands of the people. Join the ConventionofStates.com Get involved and help throttle the over reach of the Federal Government and pull back control to the States. Visit ConventionofStates.com and sign the petition and volunteer a little of your time Please your country needs you and I thank you.

On the Refugee resettlement: The transparent vetting is not necessary period. This country and no other Christian or free democracy should ever welcome or invite Islam into it for any purpose. Islam has its roots in converting you; or taxing you; or destroying you and taking over the entire country and or the world.
Please look up Dr. Bill Warner and check out his new website and buy a simple “Two Hour Koran” and you will understand. They are a religion of peace only for a short and after that they all must go through their holy jihad to get to their so called heaven. Since 622AD or over the last 1,400 years they have killed 270 people world wide. And Obama is an Islamic Jihad and a Master of Deception and will lead us and tax us and or bring these so called Syrian Refugees to finish his law of saturation. Go to the website and do the research and become a well informed citizen: political islam, com ——-And you will stop all Islamic Jihadist from ever coming to our shores ever again. I would even deport those who were here including the president of the United States. Barry Sotoro is from Indonesia by way of Kenya. Why do we put up with this imposture? It is treasonous and impeachment is to good for him. And yes I believe In free speech and I am not PC either. And yes I know it takes two to complete the impeachment process. We must stop him and all of his kind who are trying to destroy capitalism and our constitution by bankrupting us first which is getting closer by the day.

The fiscal your always starts on the same date, October 1. Since republicans are in charge, they should make sure they have the 12 appropriations bills prioritized and ready to go before the year starts.

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